Work Text:
“Something’s bothering you.”
Mob’s eyes darted up from the reception desk, caught off guard from Reigen’s voice cutting through the quiet that had lingered in the office for what had probably been an hour. Mob hadn’t noticed that the meticulous sound of deft fingers typing away on a laptop keyboard had stopped a few minutes ago.
Reigen was staring with a look that Mob had seen a number of times. Mob felt coiled, trapped under a microscope when Reigen questioned him with his eyes. More concern swept over his expression when Mob couldn’t find the words to answer him.
Mob hadn’t realized he’d been staring blankly at the desk in front of him.
“How about we end it here for the day?” Reigen suggested, shutting his laptop with a resolute click. He stretched his arms out behind him, yawning loudly. The setting sun was coming through the window that hung slightly ajar, allowing a cool breeze to have filled the room during the hours that Mob had been at the office.
Mob nodded, standing up to place his homework that he had tried and failed to focus on back into his school bag.
Reigen flung his coat over his shoulder and motioned towards the door. His hand was already on the handle when Mob’s small voice beckoned for him for the first time that day. Reigen paused before looking over his shoulder to see the boy staring at the ground once again, fingers tightly gripping the handle of his school bag.
“He’s gone.”
Reigen watched Mob’s expression that had been empty for hours on end devolve into deep sadness and grief.
He let go of the door handle and stepped towards Mob, bending down on a knee so that he could be eye to eye with him.
Tears began to form in Mob’s eyes as they remained fixed on the ground. Reigen allowed him time to gather his feelings - to put them into words.
“He was my friend, Shishou.”
“I know.” Reigen said.
“I wanted to tell him that he meant a lot to me.”
“I think he knew.” Reigen rested a hand on Mob’s shoulder, and the boy finally met his eyes. “I think you meant a lot to him too.”
A tear slipped down over Mob’s cheek, and he wiped it away shamefully. He tried to right himself quickly, looking elsewhere again.
“Hey,” Reigen prompted, shaking Mob’s shoulder a bit so that Mob looked back at him. “It’s okay to feel this way. It’s okay to miss him sometimes.”
Mob stared for a moment, expression unreadable. But then Reigen felt tension in his shoulders loosen - felt Mob let out a breath he had been holding for who knows how long.